the ignorance that prevailed as to Canada, the indifference of English
statesmen in respect to colonization, internal dissensions in the
country itself, and its slow progress, as compared with the great
republic on its borders. Yet, despite these obstacles to advancement, by
1841 the population of Canada reached nearly a million and a half, of
whom at least fifty-five per cent. were French Canadians. Then the tide
of immigration set in this direction, until at last the total population
of Canada rose, in 1867, to between three and four millions, or an
increase of more than a hundred per cent. in a quarter of a century. By
the last Census of 1870, we have some idea of the national character of
this population--more than eighty per cent. being Canadian by birth,
and, consequently, identified in all senses of the term with the soil
and prosperity of the country. Whilst the large proportion of the people
are necessarily engaged in those industrial pursuits which are the basis
of a country's material prosperity, the statistics show the rapid growth
of the classes who live by mental labour, and who are naturally the
leaders in matters of culture. The total number of the professional
class in all the provinces was some 40,000, of whom 4,436 were
clergymen, 109 judges, 264 professors, 3,000 advocates and notaries,
2,792 physicians and surgeons, 13,400 teachers, 451 civil engineers, 232
architects; and for the first time we find mention of a special class of
artists and _litterateurs_, 590 in all, and these evidently do not
include journalists, who would, if enumerated, largely swell the number.

Previous to 1867, different communities of people existed throughout
British North America, but they had no general interest or purpose, no
real bond of union, except their common allegiance to one Sovereign. The
Confederation of the Provinces was intended, by its very essence and
operation, to stimulate, not only the industrial energy, but the mental
activity as well, of the different communities that compose the